" With 60 per cent of its hours of opening available to the wider community, Sherborne has at long last a sports facility for which it has yearned for years - a public swimming pool in all but name.

Now, completed on time and on budget, the stunning 25 metre, six-lane pool established at the Oxley Sports Centre, just off Bradford Road, not only gives Sherborne School for Girls a fabulous new facility but, in partnership with Sherborne Sports and Leisure Limited, one much sought after by the town and district.

Long-time enthusiasts suggest that Sherborne first tried to finance and establish a public pool in 1926, but failed. For years, local swimmers had to go elsewhere although eventually there was a local facility - the opportunity to use Sherborne School's open-air pool, especially during the summer vacation when responsibility for its operation was accepted by the then Sherborne Urban Council and, subsequently, the town council. Many of the town's children learned to swim there during the summer months, encouraged by Sherborne Rotary Club's annual junior gala at which they were rewarded for their achievements."

(Via Latest News Pool is a landmark in history of town: .)

| Dorset Pools | 11 December 2007; 10:13:01 AM |# | | |